LOS ANGELES – The Kings completed a seven-game homestand Wednesday by playing host to the Pacific Division-rival San Jose Sharks. What a long, strange homestand it was, one of two seven-game stretches at Staples Center this season.

In fact, the compressed 2016-17 schedule has featured a number of odd wrinkles, including a string of nine consecutive games on the road last month, plus an upcoming bye week in which the Kings don’t play a game between Feb. 10-15.

There also is a four-game stretch without games between March 5-8.

Kings coach Darryl Sutter is no fan of the compressed schedule or the bye week. Or several other things about the 2016-17 schedule.

“No, no, no, no,” Sutter said. “It’s been an awful schedule.”

Sutter didn’t like the Kings’ extended stay away from home between Dec. 13-29. He’s also not a fan of such lengthy homestands as the one they completed Wednesday, or the one they’ll have March 2-16, which includes a four-day break without a game.

“We have to do a better job with our schedule, that’s for sure,” Sutter said of the NHL’s decision to compress the schedule in order to include the World Cup of Hockey in September. “To go on the road for that long of a time and then be at home for lengths of time, it’s not a good schedule.”

Compressing the schedule, playing four games in a week rather than the customary three, has impacted the level of play this season, according to Sutter. Players get less rest and aren’t as effective when they play four games in seven nights, for example. It’s become a war of attrition on the ice.

“I was talking to (Tampa Bay Lightning general manager) Steve Yzerman after (Monday’s) game,” Sutter said. “It’s easy from the outside to evaluate your team, but when you see your schedule and you see what’s going on in your (dressing) room, then you just have realistic expectations.

“I’ve always said that it had nothing to do with this year. Scheduling and injuries and officiating determine a big part of where the league is at now, because the league is about parity, and it’s so close. Those three things do impact a lot.”

GETTING DEFENSIVE

Sutter scratched Brayden McNabb for Monday’s game, expressing displeasure with the young defenseman’s play since returning from a two-month layoff because of a broken collarbone. McNabb isn’t the only defenseman whose play hasn’t lived up to expectations, though.

“We got three defensemen, (Derek) Forbort, (Kevin) Gravel and McNabb, who are all sort of in the same position in terms of we need to get a lot more out of them if we’re going to be a playoff team,” Sutter said of a trio of Kings players who are 25 or younger.

INJURY UPDATE

Right wing Tyler Toffoli skated for the first time since suffering a lower-body injury Dec. 20 against the Columbus Blue Jackets. There is no timetable for his return to the lineup.

Elliott Teaford covers the Clippers and the NBA for the Southern California News Group. He has written about hockey for the past five years and is looking forward to thawing out after so many days and nights sitting in frozen rinks. He also covered the Lakers for five seasons, including their back-to-back NBA championships in 2009 and '10. He once made a jump shot over future Utah Jazz center Mark Eaton during a pickup game in 1980 at Cypress College.

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